Week 5 Predictions for Top 5 College Football Games

We did it college football fans! We made it through that awful slate of week 4 games. This week, we get conference play starting and with that some excellent matchups. This will be a fun Saturday of football action. Last week I went 4-1 bringing my season record to 18-3 picking these games straight up. Let’s get to it.

5) California Golden Bears at #2 Oregon Ducks

Oregon comes into this game off a bye week and averaging 61 points per game, 672 yards per game, and outscoring their opponents 184-27. The interesting thing about this game is, can Cal avoid the slow start that killed them against Ohio State? The Ducks love to score early and often and if they get up, this thing could get ugly. Cal has a potent offense though with freshman QB Jared Goff leading the FBS with 435 passing yards per game. The Golden Bears will score, but they don’t have the players on defense to slow down much less stop this Oregon offense. Oregon wins by 20.

4) #14 Oklahoma Sooners at #22 Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Last year, the ND defense only allowed one TD to the Sooners when they beat them in Norman. However, we have seen that this years ND defense isn’t quite what it was last year. That being said the Sooners have an unproven QB in Blake Bell who did throw for 4 TDs in his first career start vs. Tulsa back on Sept 14th when they last played. I think the Sooners will dare the Irish to beat them with the run but I think the Irish are up to the challenge. Tommy Rees will avoid the big mistake and the trio of ND backs will find daylight against this Oklahoma defense. The Irish eyes will be smiling after the home team pulls out another close victory.

3) #21 Ole Miss Rebels at #1 Alabama Crimson Tide

Here’s the scary thing for teams playing Alabama: they have 5 total TDs from the defense and special teams that has made up for its struggles offensively, yet the only game they played that was even in question was the Texas A&M game. They are last in the SEC in rushing yards per game and second worst in total offense. So when a team this talented is struggling, if you want to pull the upset at their house, you should lay in the weeds and not chirp right? The talented young Rebels disagree. They had a WR send out a tweet and pulling the upset and the QB says they can put points on Bama. Why give them bulletin board material? The Rebels are talented but I think they find out a lesson here on not poking the bear. The Tide will roll big in this one behind a huge rushing effort.

2) #23 Wisconsin Badgers at #4 Ohio State Buckeyes

This game has some really interesting storylines to it. Are the Buckeyes as good as their 4-0 start against terrible competition? Should Braxton Miller be brought back into the starting lineup? Can the Buckeyes stop the rushing attack of Wisky? Will Urban go for 2? Ok that last one was tongue in cheek. The most interesting question to me though is how rusty will Braxton Miller be and if he struggles at all does Urban go back to Kenny Guiton who was red-hot filling In. I think Braxton will be fine and remind everyone why he was a Heisman contender coming into the season. OSU should be more worried about slowing down the nation’s leading rusher Melvin Gordon and the rushing attack that averages 349 yards/game. I see the Badgers coming back down to earth and making mistakes down the stretch with a hostile crowd at The Shoe. OSU wins this one by 3.

1) #6 LSU Tigers at #9 Georgia Bulldogs

Georgia has been through a gauntlet this season, facing 3 top 10 teams in their first four games. Even though they lost the first game to Clemson, a win here puts them right back into the national title hunt and I would rank them #4. However, it will be no easy task to beat Les Miles’ bunch who I feel is the most underrated team in the country. There are many people around the country who believe LSU is playing the best football in the country right now and I don’t think it’s crazy. This mostly centers around the man under center, Zach Mettenberger who has 1,025 passing yards and 10 TDs through four games. I predict that Mettenberger will have a big game against the team that dismissed him, lead LSU to a road victory and start getting those first place votes.